Businesses crave higher engagement with clientele. You likely spend considerable time and money trying to achieve a stronger customer connection.

Since your employees are often the first contact a customer has with your firm, it’s worthwhile to make sure they’re as involved as possible. Unfortunately, engagement is often pretty low for employees.

About 88 percent of workers report they don’t have passion for their duties. This may cost companies more than $500 billion a year in productivity, absenteeism, and lost customers.

Engagement could continue to go downhill unless you take action. Here are six steps to creating stronger engagement among your staff.

1. Hone your recruitment tactics

One of the dampeners of engagement is recruiting. About 75 percent of businesses say they struggle to attract the quality of employees they need. Funding, strategies, executive commands, and other factors can make the challenge greater.

You may need a better recruitment strategy. Individual organizations have to evaluate what’s not working and take steps to reverse that.

Here’s an example of a better recruitment strategy: A health care organization struggles to attract employees who have both the knowledge to do their job well and the work ethic to mesh with the operation’s particular company values.

The solution was to hire straight from an accredited university so the company could train employees according to its organizational values. Any firm can follow the same pattern to recognize a problem and change its recruitment strategy accordingly.

2. Set stronger company and individual goals

Give your employees purpose. They’ll naturally feel more engaged if they’re presented with a more personal connection. Encourage individuals to set goals for themselves by providing an incentive at the end.

Then, come together as a group and create company goals that support both the aims of the organization and everyone’s individual goals. Working toward something greater can increase passion and spark engagement.

3. Inspire them with the future

One big reason for low engagement in an organization is the feeling that the job is a dead end. When staff members feel as if there’s no room for growth, both for themselves and the company, they won’t put themselves out there.

You have the power to make the future more tangible for employees. For example, you might discuss innovative opportunities for your organization, share customer wins, tell success stories of workers who moved up in the business, or offer a vision of where your company could be if everyone pitched in.

4. Lead by example

This kind of disengagement is difficult for employees to follow. If they don’t see enthusiasm for the job, they won’t readily emulate it.

Executives shouldn’t have to love every aspect of their job, but they should try to display a little more energy in whatever they do. Enthusiasm is catching: As you lead by example, you’ll spark a chain reaction that encourages higher engagement in your employees.

5. Track and communicate progress

Even if they might not realize it, employees want to develop their skill set and become better. They also want to be part of a winning organization that has a great reputation.

When the company people work for performs well, employees will follow suit. Use a system to track the progress of both the organization and individuals. When goals are met, communicate that to the team. Celebrating successes will inspire engagement.

6. Design feedback procedures

One of the best ways to maintain forward progress is through feedback. Allow employees to share what they think, either anonymously or through frequent meetings.

Staff members know better than anyone what it’s like to work in their situation, and they can offer insights that executives may miss. Use employee engagement surveys, establish the chain of command, create an open-door policy, and institute trainings that call for employee feedback.

When employees feel more like they’re contributing to the success of the organization, they’re more likely to react positively and enthusiastically on the job.